Part 1 - Tarweeda - Secret Language  - ترويدة
Part 2 - Ya Yuma - Joy and Love  - يا يما
Part 3 - Olo La Emo - The Wedding - قولو لامو
Part 4 - Hayeed An El Jeshe - Love and Resistance  - حيد عن الجيشي

Zenobia’s new EP is a journey into Palestinian folk songs, more specifically the field of women’s songs. Reverting once again to the figure of their namesake (the warrior queen Septima Zenobia of Palmyra, who ruled over the Levant in the third century AD), the electronic music duo imagine that the Queen never died: she moved into hidden dimensions, and has been spreading her message of hope and freedom through the voice of these folk songs.

Zenobia (the band) picked four emblematic folk songs, generally sung by women, and originally related to moments in traditional everyday life (weddings, celebrations, funerals). Over the years, these songs have taken on different meanings, and have grown to become vehicles for the voices of unheard people.

’Tarweeda’, for example, was used  by women ever since the days of the British Mandate in the 1930s, as a way of transmitting encrypted messages between political prisoners and their villages. The encryption involved permutations of letters in the lyrics.

‘Ya Yuma’ is a straightforward love song, about the joys of founding a family.

‘Olo Ła Emo’ is also a wedding song, in honour of the groom. It has sadly become one of the songs performed in memory of martyrs.

‘Hayeed An El Jeshe’ tells the tale of a girl who chooses to run away with the man she loves instead of accepting an arranged marriage. In one section of the story, the lovers are being chased by soldiers, this episode took on new undertones in recent decades.

By revisiting these iconic songs, Zenobia are paying tribute to the role of women singers and storytellers who, for generations, have preserved and transmitted vibrant parts of the Palestinian cultural heritage.

The songs are performed by four different Palestinian vocalists, one for each song. respectively (by order of appearance of the EP) Rola Azar, Sama Shuhhok, Dunia Qarawany and Rina Kardosh .

The Warriors Never Die EP is a special side project, carried out by Zenobia while they’re working on their second album (scheduled for 2024). Aside from its interesting cultural content, it has enabled the duo to develop a new dimension of their music. They’ll most probably use some elements from this refined, mid-tempo excursion and inject them in the powerful and festive electronic music they’ve become known and loved for.